Some Facts About Food Additives

I. Bread

In the Federal Register Standard, the following chemicals are allowed in the bleaching and aging of white flour:

Nitrogen trichloride (which causes running fits in dogs)

Chlorine dioxide (which destroys vitamin E)

Oxides of nitrogen

Chlorine (which causes starch to swell)

Nitrosyl chloride

Chlorine dioxide

To the bleached flour the following can be added -- one part benzoyl peroxide mixed with six parts of any of the following: potassium alum, calcium sulfate, magnesium, carbonate, dosium aluminum sulfate, dicalcium phosphate, tricalcium phosphate, starch, or calcium carbonate (chalk).

To this "flour" can also be added acetone peroxides and azodicarbonamide.

In addition, the cadmium to zinc ratio is upset Cadmium is hazardous to the body unless it is buffered in a 1:120 ratio with zinc. The ratio in white bread is 1:20.

The bread is prepared with any of the following ingredients: calcium lactate, calcium carbonate, dicalcium phosphate, ammonium phosphates, ammonium sulfate, ammonium chloride, potassium bromate, calcium bromate, potassium idate, calcium peroxide, azodicarbonamide, tricalcium phosphate, monocalcium phosphate, calcium propionate, sodium propionate, sodium diacetate, or lactic acid and/or calcium stearoyl-2-laclytate, lactylic stearate, sodium, stearyl fumarate, succinylated monoglycerides, ethoxylated mono and di-glycerides.

Altogether, there are 93 additives, and none have to be declared on the label. Incidentally, they are also standard for whole wheat bread. Most wheat bread produced by commercial bakeries contains more white flour than wheat. Caramel color is added to make it look like whole wheat.

II. Food Flavoring

In France, the country of culinary excellence, the government allows only six food flavorings in the food. In America, the country of food technology, we allow 3,600 food flavorings. Most have not been tested adequately, and some have never been tested at all. Any testing is done by FEMA (Flavor Extract Manufacturers Association). In 1961, this Association prepared their own GRAS list (Generally Recognized as Safe). In 1961, the then Deputy Commissioner of the FDA, Winston B. Rankin, said, "the manufacturers are entitled to reach their own conclusions, based on their scientific evidence that a subject is, in fact, generally recognized as safe."

Of the 1,622 additives on the GRAS list, the FPC listed 1,077 designed only to add or enhance flavor, most are phony flavors made from coal-tar bases. If we need to have so many flavorings to enhance the flavor of our food, what must it taste like before the flavorings are added? And what quality of produce are we getting, that it needs so much flavoring to make it palatable?

III. Meat

In this country, 80-90% of all meat produced is grown on antibiotics and hormones from birth to slaughter. Diethylstilbestrol is fed to most beef cattle, and the small residues cannot be monitored. This substance has been accused of causing vaginal cancers in young women who received doses intrauterinely, when their mothers were carrying them. The hormone did its damage 20 years after it was received.

Cattlemen can buy penicillin by the pound at a feed store without a prescription. This precious drug, which saves the lives of millions, is given indiscriminately to livestock.

Chickens are raised in a 12" x 18" cage, with three chickens to each cage. They are fed antibiotics, tranquilizers, and hormones daily.

Sodium nitrate is used in all processed meats, as a preservative. It is a known carcinogenic, but has been outlawed under the Delaney Clause because it is a coloring, and was approved by the USDA as a color agent in the Federal Meat Inspection Act of 1958. The nitrate combines with stomach juices to produce toxic nitrosamines and nitrosamides. Children are especially vulnerable. The Surgeon General warns parents that it would be prudent to avoid processed baby meats.

IV. Soda Pop

The standard recipe includes any of 12 nutritive sweeteners, any of 8 acidifying agents, any of 32 buffering agents, any of 17 emulsifiers (including brominated vegetable oils banned in England for causing liver lesions in rats), any of ______ emulsifier’s helpers, any of six foaming agents, 1 anti-foaming agent. In cola or pepper drinks, the recipe includes 0.2% caffeine.

The chemicals used in cola products have a tendency to decrease the stomach's production of enzymes and acids, which lowers the absorption of food nutrients. Diethyl Pyrocarbonate (DEP) combines with ammonia at a pH of 4-9 to form urethan. Since 1949, it has been known that urethan is carcinogenic. GRAS stipulates that it can only be used at a pH below 4.5. However, if the pop sits out for a period of time, the pH can change. The ammonium ion becomes available when citric juices are used. They provide 50 mg liter.

V. BHT and BHA

Butylated hydrozyanisole BHA - most widely used in the U.S. on 32 items from baked goods to pork sausage when tested on weanling albino rats inhibited contraction of the smooth muscle of the ileum (part of the small intestine). It also caused growth retardation.

Butylated hydroxytoluene BHT - tests on various animals showed metabolic stress, growth retardation, loss of weight, increase of liver weight, liver, and kidney damage, increase serum cholesterol, baldness and fetal abnormalities. BHT is stored in tissues, fat, and organs and is slowly excreted. It has been banned in Romania, Sweden, Austria, and the United Kingdom. In 1972, research showed major changes in brain chemistry and abnormal behavior patterns.

VI. Food Additives

Not all additives in foods are declared on the label. The FDA has established standards of identity for many foods such as bread, ice cream, soft drinks, etc., in which as many as 50 additives do not have to be listed on the labels.

The following table is a list of some of the food additives that are GRAS. A description of use is given for the most common additives.

ADDITIVE
USE

Acacia, gum


Acetic acid
Gives vinegar its sharp taste. Used to preserve, flavor or acidify
foods.

Acid phosphate of calcium


Adipic acid


Agar


Alginates


Alum


Aluminum sulfate


Ammonium compounds


Anisole


Antioxidants


Arginine (d-l)


Arginine (l)


Artificial colors


Artificial flavors


Ascorbic acid


Ascorbic acid
Used as vitamin C
supplement in beverages,
potato flakes and breakfast
goods; also used as anti-
oxidant to prevent oxygen
from combining with
vegetable oils and turning
food rancid; used additionally
to give bread light textures.

Ascorby palmitate


Ascorbyl palmitate
Acts as anti-oxidant in food
to keep it from turning
rancid.

Aspartame
The chemical name for
NutraSweet. Because Nutra-
Sweet contains methanol, a
human specific and highly
toxic poison, its safety is
questionable.